Finland is part of the exclusive club that is being chaired by China. That club is called "Countries that censor the Internet".
The thing I have been afraid of and have been warning of happened. A moral panic caused a piece of legislation to be rushed through the parliament and made in to a law. That law is is called "Law of preventive measures to stop the spread of child pornography". In a nutshell, the law gives the authorities the right to create blacklists of websites that are to be censored. Theory is that only foreign websites containing child-pornography will end up on the list. The list is limited to just foreign websites, because if the website was in Finland, it would naturally be shut down by authorities, since pedophilia is illegal in Finland.
Well, that's the theory. In reality large part of the censored websites do not contain child-pornography. Many contain normal gay-porn. Many contain 100% straight porn. Many of those website reside in EU or USA (where pedophilia is also illegal). If those websites have illegal material, why haven't those countries shut them down? It's either because
a) they do NOT contain illegal material
b) They do contain illegal material, but Finnish authorities who discovered it haven't notified their colleagues in those countries
In addition, many of the websites in the blacklist are not related to porn at all! Yet for some reason, they are still censored.
And, like I said, the blacklist should only cover foreign websites. But now the authorities have added a Finnish website which critiques the law and the blacklist in to the blacklist as well! Am I the only one who is starting to get a bit worried about this?
Then there's the fact that Finnish Constitution bans censorship. So this law is unconstitutional as well. So that's three ways this law is flawed so far:
1. The law itself is unconstitutional.
2. The law is supposed to only deal with child-pornography. But the blacklist contains lots of websites that have nothing to do with child-pornography!
3. The law is supposed to only deal with foreign websites. But now they are using that law to muzzle a dissenting voice inside Finland.
The moment I heard of this law, I was certain that once the groundwork is done, some people will insist on using it for other purposes as well. And sure enough: record-labels and the like have told that they would like to see the law extended so that it covers websites that distribute material that infringes on their copyright! What next? Censoring websites that critique the government?
The whole law looks and feels evil. The authorities compile the blacklist (which is officially secret) of banned websites, and internet service providers can then use that list to block access to those websites. And the lawmakers did say that "using that blacklist is voluntary".... And then they continued by saying "but if service providers do not voluntarily use the blacklist, we will make it mandatory".
I'm deeply ashamed and PISSED OFF!
Nokia
Some time ago Nokia announced that they will be closing the cell-phone factory in Bochum, Germany, and moving the production to their plant in Romania. Lots and lots of Germans got angry (and who can blame them?). And now, the Finnish part of Attac has called for boycott against Nokia.
Now, while I understand the annoyance of Germans over the issue, I don't understand the issue Finnish Attac has over this issue. I mean, this is not a case os simply closing down a factory, this is about closing down a factory in one place, and moving the production (and lots of jobs) to some other place. Knowing that, and knowing that Attac opposes that move, it begs a question: Does Attac feel that Germans deserve these jobs, while Romanians do not? Why else would they oppose this move?
Now, while I understand the annoyance of Germans over the issue, I don't understand the issue Finnish Attac has over this issue. I mean, this is not a case os simply closing down a factory, this is about closing down a factory in one place, and moving the production (and lots of jobs) to some other place. Knowing that, and knowing that Attac opposes that move, it begs a question: Does Attac feel that Germans deserve these jobs, while Romanians do not? Why else would they oppose this move?
Debt
So I have been going through my budget for the year. And I have decided to take aggressive steps in cutting back on debt. I have very little credit-card debt, which is a good thing since that stuff has relatively high interest (somewhat over 10%). So I'm not worried about that. Then I have two large mortages (well, one is largish, the other is smaller) with 25-years repayment-plans. Aggressively tackling those now isn't really necessary, especially since they have the lowest interests in my debt-repertoire, (about 4.75%). But I still have some student-loan with relatively high interest (IIRC, about 5%) and a bit higher amount of loan that was used to buy our car. That has interest of 4.95%.
So I made an aggressive plan to repay both of those by the end of the year. And that's quite a bit of money. But replaying those loans helps quite a bit in my monthly expenses, and after that I can start making some extra payments towards repaying our mortages (repaying the mortages has less short-term benefits, but it helps in the long-term). Repaying those would be a multi-year tasks, but I have to start sometime. I didn't plan to wait 25 years for them to get repaid. And with no more student-loan and car-debt, I have a lot more flexibility in handling those larger debts.
I still hope to win in the lottery though....
So I made an aggressive plan to repay both of those by the end of the year. And that's quite a bit of money. But replaying those loans helps quite a bit in my monthly expenses, and after that I can start making some extra payments towards repaying our mortages (repaying the mortages has less short-term benefits, but it helps in the long-term). Repaying those would be a multi-year tasks, but I have to start sometime. I didn't plan to wait 25 years for them to get repaid. And with no more student-loan and car-debt, I have a lot more flexibility in handling those larger debts.
I still hope to win in the lottery though....
Doors
Why do doors in different countries open in different directions? At least in USA doors open towards the inside, whereas in Finland they open to the outside?
Common sense suggests that doors that open outside are a lot harder to kick open, since it would be the frame of the door that absorbs the hit, in addition to any locks and bolts that might be present. Whereas door that open to the inside would have to rely on the bolts alone. Now, that may or may not be relevant to everyday-situations but still.
Is there any reason, historical or otherwise why doors open the way they do?
Common sense suggests that doors that open outside are a lot harder to kick open, since it would be the frame of the door that absorbs the hit, in addition to any locks and bolts that might be present. Whereas door that open to the inside would have to rely on the bolts alone. Now, that may or may not be relevant to everyday-situations but still.
Is there any reason, historical or otherwise why doors open the way they do?
Sauna
Now, as you may remember, I spent quite some time "talking" about the renovation in our new home. But there were few places that did not need one bit on renovation. One of those places was the sauna. The previous tenants had completely redone the sauna few months earlier, and I must say that they did a good job at it.
Time
Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way
Tired of lying in the sunshine
Staying home to watch the rain
And you are young and life is long
And there is time to kill today
And then one day you find
Ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run
You missed the starting gun
And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death
Every year is getting shorter
Never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to nought
Or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone
The song is over
Thought I'd something more to say
Home, home again
I like to be here when I can
When I come home cold and tired
It's good to warm my bones beside the fire
Far away across the field
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spells
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way
Tired of lying in the sunshine
Staying home to watch the rain
And you are young and life is long
And there is time to kill today
And then one day you find
Ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run
You missed the starting gun
And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death
Every year is getting shorter
Never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to nought
Or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone
The song is over
Thought I'd something more to say
Home, home again
I like to be here when I can
When I come home cold and tired
It's good to warm my bones beside the fire
Far away across the field
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spells
Flight of the Conchords
Now, Facebook might be spawn of Satan, but it has just totally redeem itself. Thanks to it, I ran it to this. "Business Time" by "Flight of the Conchords". That has got to be one of the most funny and ingenious performances I have seen in a long time. And imagine my joy when I discovered that YouTube is filled with their acts. Stuff like "Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros" (Gangsta-folk crossover), "Jenny", and "The Humans are Dead" (any song that has a binary-solo gets instant thumbs-up in my book).
I need to get more stuff from these guys!
I need to get more stuff from these guys!